Last month at the Kentucky High School Athletic Association's annual meeting, a majority of state delegates said private high schools had an unfair advantage over public schools in athletics, and that something needed to be done.

By an overwhelming margin, Northern Kentucky delegates said something different.

Kentucky delegates voted 127-111 in favor of Proposal 13, which essentially would have barred schools that offer financial aid from competing for state titles.

The measure, which required a two-thirds majority to pass, fell 37 votes short. And the proposal's proponents didn't get much help from Northern Kentucky.

According to KHSAA voting records, of the 23 Northern Kentucky schools that voted on Proposal 13, only two - Lloyd and Ryle - voted in its favor.

So what accounts for this disparity? Why was a measure that enjoyed statewide support such a dud in Northern Kentucky, where in the last five years tuition-based schools have won a disproportionate number of state titles?

Inside the numbers

Proposal 13 marked the latest battle line in the long-standing "public school vs. private school" debate.

"I think there are some people who have problems with the very nature of the (private) schools and their lack of boundaries," KHSAA commissioner Brigid DeVries said.

"They feel like there's an unfair advantage there."

The numbers would seem to bear that out, both statewide, where tuition-based schools won eight of the state's recent 14 fall titles, and in Northern Kentucky.

Since the KHSAA began handing out state titles in 1918, Northern Kentucky schools have won 178 - 89 by public schools and 89 by tuition-based schools.

But in the past five years in Northern Kentucky, private schools have won almost 70 percent of the area's state titles in team sports (18 of 26), even though tuition-based schools make up only 38 percent of the region's schools (10 of 26).

That's a problem, Lloyd athletic director Chad Molley said.

"People say there's equity, and the KHSAA says they've got rules in place, but there's not equity," he said.

A key reason is the area's close-knit geography, in which public and tuition-based schools are bundled together in close proximity.

"It's not like other parts of the state, where things are so spread out," said Bob Schneider, who is Newport Central Catholic's football coach, a KHSAA Board of Control member and an opponent of Proposal 13.

And if the close proximity creates some mischief - "There are people that shop around for their kids (in Northern Kentucky). It's not that big a problem to go across the Licking River or go to another county," Schneider said - it also requires local solutions.

"We're all in the same association, the Northern Kentucky Athletic Conference. Our athletic directors sit down every year and discuss these issues. People here realize it's not just a private-school problem."

Public school dominance

And to be sure, there are public schools in Northern Kentucky that won't garner much sympathy from their tuition-based counterparts.

Historically, Highlands is considered the most successful football program in the state. And in the 1990s, it and Beechwood, another public school, accounted for 11 state football titles.

"Every school has their own particular advantages," Highlands coach and athletic director Dale Mueller said. "At Highlands, we have a lot of advantages because we've had such great parental support and such a good tradition."

And tradition, Bishop Brossart's Ray Kues says, is a powerful attraction. Kues has coached his teams to six state titles in boys cross county, and the Mustangs won the All "A" state title in girls basketball.

"(The high school experience) is a combination of things, and athletics is one factor," Kues said. "If everything else is equal, you can't fault a student for wanting to participate in a successful athletic program."

That's of little consolation to Lloyd's Molley.

"There never will be equity, because public schools have boundaries and private schools don't," he said. "While that's the case, they're always going to have an advantage.

"... It makes it really tough when they come into
your
district and take
your
kids."

But for now, proponents of Proposal 13 will have to go back to the drawing board, or perhaps accept the verdict of the KHSAA's DeVries.